Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica:
Late last week, Apple released more details about how (with certain opt-in settings) the Apple Watch Series 4 will contact emergency services if the watch detects that you’ve had a hard fall.
Before actually contacting first responders, the Apple Watch will try to give numerous urgent alerts: tapping the wearer on the wrist, sounding of a very loud alarm, and also displaying a visual alert.
There are several issues with Apple Watch Series 4 Fall Detection. In the short term, detection seems to be a bit buggy. Some people have complained of the alert firing off when the watch falls, without being on a wrist. Others have fallen hard and not had the Apple Watch detect the fall, even with Fall Detection enabled. These issues will, no doubt, be addressed over time.
A more complex, longer term issue:
If police are alerted by an Apple Watch of a possible injury, they do not need a warrant to enter a home under the “community caretaking” exception to the Fourth Amendment. This is the notion that law enforcement officers can enter a private space if they reasonably believe that someone needs emergency assistance.
Lots of implications there. Read the whole article. Thoughtful piece.
On the last paragraph, isn’t that the whole point? What good would auto-calling 911 be if emergency responders were barred from entering your home to help you?
What really matters is that Apple needs to improve fall detection. Until they do, if you’re worried about police entering your house without a warrant, turn the feature off until its more accurate.
A simple solution would be an option to disable auto-calling. For people who want fall detection without the auto call. Or allow users to adjust the time setting. 1 minute doesn’t allow much time for false triggers.
I bet this is a big reason why it’s off by default for everyone under 65.
The big question here is, for the over-65 crowd, how many of them will accidentally e.g. drop the watch while not on their wrist, trigger the call unnoticed, etc.? I assume it uses wrist detection to minimize this.
Here’s another thought. This is a tempest in a teapot until a problem actually surfaces. Until then, this is all hair-on-fire hysteria, and ambulance chasers prepping people to sue.
it’s a feature you can turn off and there’s like a 60 second delay from a fall being detected before 911 is called. so if you are worried that you will forget your watch at home, your cat will knock it off the table and the cops will bust down your door, just turn it off.
until someone has the feature on, obviously falls and dies because it didn’t call 911 is it really a huge issue especially legally
yes I would imagine that wrist detection is part of the program